1

Lead Data Center Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Data Center Engineer

Lanham, MD · On-site

$160K - $195K/yr

Title: Data Center Engineer Belong. Connect. Grow. with KBR! KBR's National Security Solutions team provides high-end engineering and advanced technology solutions to our customers in the ...

Lead Data Center Delivery Engineer

Houston, TX · On-site

$97K - $128K/yr

Lead Data Center Delivery Engineer Modular Data Center Deployments Location: Houston, TX (United States) • On-site • Full-time About Submer Submer designs and delivers end-to-end AI datacenter ...

Lead Data Center Delivery Engineer Modular Data Center Deployments Location: Houston, TX (United States) On-site Full-time About Submer Submer designs and delivers end-to-end AI datacenter ...

Data Center Engineer Rate: $45/hour Location: Sparks, NV Duration: 12+ Month Contract Top Skills ... and lead system recovery efforts. • Support hardware and software teams with hardware and ...

Data Center Engineer Rate: $45/hour Location: Sparks, NV Duration: 12+ Month Contract Top Skills ... and lead system recovery efforts. • Support hardware and software teams with hardware and ...

Data Center Operations Engineer - Dayton, Ohio Join Our Award-Winning Team and Help Shape the Future of Cloud Hosting! Location: Dayton, OH (On-site) Type: Full-Time Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8 ...

Data Center Operations Engineer -- Dayton, Ohio Join Our Award-Winning Team and Help Shape the Future of Cloud Hosting!   Location: Dayton, OH (On-site) Type: Full-Time Work Schedule: Monday-Friday ...

Data Center Manager

Austin, TX · Hybrid

$165K/yr

Lead Data Center & Cloud Engineering initiatives, including infrastructure lifecycle modernization, design reviews, technical architecture, and performance optimization. * Support development and ...

Data Center Manager

Austin, TX · Hybrid

$165K/yr

Lead Data Center & Cloud Engineering initiatives, including infrastructure lifecycle modernization, design reviews, technical architecture, and performance optimization. * Support development and ...

They are seeking a Data Center Engineer responsible for fieldwork at customer sites to resolve and ... lead investigations with engineers of multiple disciplines • Strong written and verbal ...

Data Center Manager

Austin, TX · On-site

$165K/yr

Lead Data Center & Cloud Engineering initiatives, including infrastructure lifecycle modernization, design reviews, technical architecture, and performance optimization. * Support development and ...

Be our hands and eyes in the data center and report any environmental issues (power, cooling, temperatures) and escalate to management and the provider* Work with Engineering and NOC teams to ...

Showing results 41-60

Lead Data Center Engineer information

See salary details

$42.5K

$123.8K

$180.5K

How much do lead data center engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 15, 2026, the average yearly pay for lead data center engineer in the United States is $123,784.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $102,500.00 and $135,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a lead data center engineer do?

A Lead Data Center Engineer is responsible for overseeing the operation, maintenance, and improvement of data center infrastructure. They manage teams, ensure high availability of servers and network systems, and coordinate upgrades, repairs, and installations. Their role often includes monitoring environmental systems like power and cooling, implementing security protocols, and troubleshooting technical issues. Additionally, they work closely with other IT professionals to ensure data center performance aligns with organizational needs.

What skills and qualifications are needed to be a lead data center engineer?

To thrive as a Lead Data Center Engineer, you need in-depth knowledge of network infrastructure, server hardware, and power/cooling systems, often backed by a relevant degree and certifications like Cisco CCNA/CCNP or CompTIA Server+. Familiarity with monitoring tools, virtualization platforms, and data center management software is typically required. Strong leadership, problem-solving skills, and effective communication distinguish top performers in this role. These skills and qualities are crucial for ensuring reliable operations, rapid issue resolution, and seamless team coordination in mission-critical environments.

What challenges does a lead data center engineer face, and how can they address them?

Lead Data Center Engineers frequently encounter challenges such as maintaining high system uptime, coordinating complex hardware upgrades, and ensuring robust security protocols. These professionals must balance technical troubleshooting with managing cross-functional teams, often under tight deadlines. Effective communication, proactive planning, and staying current with emerging technologies are key to overcoming these obstacles and keeping data center operations running smoothly.

What is the difference between Lead Data Center Engineer vs Data Center Technician?

AspectLead Data Center EngineerData Center Technician
CertificationsCCNA, CCNP, Data Center certificationsCompTIA Server+, Data Center certifications
Work EnvironmentDesign, oversee, and troubleshoot data center infrastructureInstall, maintain, and repair hardware and systems
ResponsibilitiesLead projects, system optimization, team coordinationHardware setup, routine maintenance, troubleshooting

The Lead Data Center Engineer typically handles planning, design, and leadership roles within data centers, requiring advanced certifications and experience. In contrast, Data Center Technicians focus on hands-on hardware installation and maintenance. Both roles are essential, but the engineer often supervises technicians and manages complex systems.

More about Lead Data Center Engineer jobs

What are popular job titles related to Lead Data Center Engineer jobs?

For Lead Data Center Engineer jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Lead Data Center Engineer job openings in the United States as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% Internship, 1% As Needed, 84% Full Time, 12% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 85% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 12% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $123,784 per year, or $59.5 per hour.

Data Center Engineer

Lanham, MD • On-site

KBR
IT Services • 10K+ employees

$160K - $195K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 19 days ago


KBR rating

8.4

Company rating: 8.4 out of 10

Based on 49 frontline employees who took The Breakroom Quiz


Job description

Title:

Data Center Engineer

Belong. Connect. Grow. with KBR!

KBR's National Security Solutions team provides high-end engineering and advanced technology solutions to our customers in the intelligence and national security communities. In this position, your work will have a profound impact on the country's most critical role - protecting our national security.

Why Join Us?

  • Innovative Projects: KBR's work is at the forefront of engineering, logistics, operations, science, program management, mission IT and cybersecurity solutions.
  • Collaborative Environment: Be part of a dynamic team that thrives on collaboration and innovation, fostering a supportive and intellectually stimulating workplace.
  • Impactful Work: Your contributions will be pivotal in designing and optimizing defense systems that ensure national security and shape the future of space defense.

Responsibilities:

The qualified candidate will provide infrastructure engineering for periodic data center refresh and/or new data center technologies, including future cloud capabilities. The candidate will also design, deliver, and optimize Infrastructure Services to improve security, availability, performance, and resource utilization in the data centers.

  • Key responsibilities include:
    • Reviewing current infrastructures, architectures, designs, and operations to identify potential improvements; analyzing, refining, and documenting the requirements for transition from legacy hardware into modern data center infrastructure environment
    • Designing and building host & tenant environment with security hardened configuration for infrastructure services and designing ongoing maintenance practices and procedures for infrastructure hosted service patching and updates
    • The candidate will design virtual Infrastructure services to maximize available capacity of physical compute, storage, and network hardware resources and document security, configuration, and performance benchmarks of Infrastructure Services
    • The qualified candidate will also design production infrastructure services that support highly available, private cloud, active-active data center operations, within the constraints of the environment
    • Additional responsibilities for this role include: designing practices, procedures, Automation and Orchestration to provision, de-provision, and entitle Compute, Storage, and Network resources
    • Identifying infrastructure security-relevant actions, tests, and key performance indicators for Information Dashboard and Reporting
    • Designing Service Catalog Items for Infrastructure Services for business and IT technical services
    • Providing advanced technical support in the research, experimentation, business analysis and use of systems technology including architecture, integration capabilities and database management
    • Developing the end-to-end vision and the logical design that translates into physical databases, and how the data will flow through the successive stages involved
    • The qualified candidate will possess a wide range of data administration skills, often in a Business Process Reengineering context and will participate in strategic data planning, including development and implementation of DA policies, standards, and procedures
    • The candidate will also understand data from the perspective of data processing and in the context of different life-cycle phases
    • Additional activities for this role may include data quality engineering, metadata consolidation and integration, metamodel development and maintenance, repository management, data warehouse design and data mining, data security administration, and formulation of enterprise-specific data metrics

Work Environment:

  • Location: On-Site - 540 National Business Parkway, Annapolis Junction, MD
  • Travel Requirements: Minimal
  • Working Hours: Standard

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Experience/Education:
  • Active Top Secret / SCI clearance
  • Requires 8 years with BS/BA or 3 to 5 years with MS/MA or 0 to 2 years with PhD
  • Experience in Infrastructure/Datacenter engineering and integration for both physical and virtual infrastructure hosting one or more Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, Solaris, UNIX, and/or AIX systems
  • Experience in VMware vCloud Enterprise Suite and hybrid cloud with multiple classified Government clouds
  • Must have a current DoD 8570.1-M IAT Level III certification

Desired Qualifications:

  • Professional-level Linux, VMware, Network, Storage, or Cloud certifications desired
  • ITIL Foundations certification desired

Basic Compensation: $160,000 - $195,000 (This range is for Maryland only)

The offered rate will be based on the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities and/or experience and in consideration of internal parity.


Additional Compensation:

KBR may offer bonuses, commissions, or other forms of compensation to certain job titles or levels, per internal policy or contractual designation. Additional compensation may be in the form of sign on bonus, relocation benefits, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, or discretionary payments for exceptional performance.

Belong, Connect and Grow at KBR
At KBR, we are passionate about our people and our Zero Harm culture. These inform all that we do and are at the heart of our commitment to, and ongoing journey toward being a People First company. That commitment is central to our team of team's philosophy and fosters an environment where everyone can Belong, Connect and Grow. We Deliver - Together.

KBR is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.


What KBR employees say

Pay

Benefits

Hours and flexibility

Workplace

Get the full story on Breakroom


KBR logo

About KBR

Sourced by ZipRecruiter

At KBR, we partner with government and industry clients to provide purposeful and comprehensive solutions with an emphasis on efficiency and safety. With a full portfolio of services, proprietary technologies and expertise, our employees are ready to handle projects and missions from planning and design to sustainability and maintenance. Whether at the bottom of the ocean or in outer space, our clients trust us to deliver the impossible on a daily basis.

Industry

It services

Company size

10,000+ Employees

Headquarters location

Houston, TX, US

Year founded

1998